6 May 2007

DUBAI — Dubai has hundreds of new hotels set for completion over the next few years, adding burden to the problem of lack of personnel for the hospitality industry in the entire Middle East region.

Nakheel, the UAE's largest property developer, said 210 hotels would be operational on the three Dubai Palms alone in the next few years, 30 of which would open on Jumeirah Palm by 2009.

"In addition, new hotel properties often include serviced apartments, spas and recreation facilities, which call for additional staffing requirements," Samal Marketing Communications (SMC) said in a Press advisory.

SMC said the hospitality sector in the Middle East would need at least 1.5 million more employees by 2017 "to sustain the breakneck development of hotels and regional tourism infrastructure".

Quoting a study done by Global Future and Foresight, SMC said hotels now face the risk of losing their personnel to other industry players in the region. The other problems facing the sector with regard to lack of personnel are the emerging economies in labour-sending countries such as India and the Philippines, and the refusal of local human resources to take on hospitality jobs.    "Regional hoteliers are beginning to adopt a number of creative strategies to address this dilemma, but simply recruiting the relevant number of staff in itself is not enough...it must lead to development and successful retention," said Judith Chalk.

SMC said that ironically, fear of having their employees poached by rival hotel chains led some industry players to cut back on their training and development budgets. Chalk, however, stressed: "Hotels that invest heavily in a sustainable human resources strategy will achieve the best bottom-line results."